Roman Stacks

**Sharpe's Company** · October 27, 2009, 03:52 PM

If there was a Rome 2 do you think that the Romans should be able to create a Complete Stack?

The Roman Legion to my knowledge was a Stack, It was made up of numerous units.

The Legions were generally drawn from a basic outline, Cavalry, Infantry, Engineers etc

Lets say for example on your recruitment screen, you have all your units etc but have one unit card that would create a 'Roman Legion' and each time you created one, it would be Named 'Legion I, Legion II' and would automatically give it a General.

The idea for doing this would be a benefit if you ask me, under my proposal you would still be able to create your own stack if you wish or have the choice to raise a complete stack, that would be a great thing for players to quickly build up their forces.

It would also give the AI the chance to always build a Stack that packs a punch instead of what we are all used too, if you have played RTW, MTW2 and ETW, We all have faced a full Stack of Roman Home Guard, Peasants and Artillery without a Genral in the past which dampens our Moral to carry on our Campaigns. Under this system you'll always face a Stack that would always give you a decent and hard battle.

What you think?

**KayRim** · October 27, 2009, 04:19 PM

I like this idea. I don't think you should be able to recruit one of these stacks over a few brief turns but still, it should be less time than it would to create twenty units individually. It would also be 'noob' friendly since the stack would be balanced for you.

However, there should still be a few more stipulations for legion recruitment. The AI shouldn't be shoving full stacks down your throat every other turn.

**Sharpe's Company** · October 27, 2009, 05:30 PM

Yes it would be noob friendly and also benefit the AI.

I agree, the time it should take to create a Legion should be under 20 turns and should cost a small fortune. You could even have an option of which Legion you wanted to pick, a low priced stack made from standard units or a high priced stack consisting of elite units.

Personally I wouldn't mind the enemy attacking me with stacks as long as they are coherent, the system would haft to go through checks to make sure they wouldn't be able to spam them, of course.

To me, this would add to the game the realistic side of the Roman Army! Its legendary legions were not implemented into the game very well. As good a game Rome was/is, I never got that sense of Roman Might and Professionalism and the lack of Legions i believe are a key reason why.

I'd love to see a Roman Stack on the Map coming towards me and all I knew about them, was what I could see on their Banner.

Here is the list of legions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_legions

**Parzival2211** · October 27, 2009, 07:09 PM

I actually prefer the freedom to choose the setup of my armies and wouldn't want to be confined by preset legions. For the AI, I guess we all agree that a lot could be improved - having a standard army setup could be expedient.

**KayRim** · October 27, 2009, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by Parzival2211

I actually prefer the freedom to choose the setup of my armies and wouldn't want to be confined by preset legions. For the AI, I guess we all agree that a lot could be improved - having a standard army setup could be expedient.

Well, you wouldn't be confined to preset armies. You should still be able to recruit units individually to create your own setup.

In my opinion, the general that spawns with a legion should not be a part of the family tree (I hate seeing bloated family trees

). His starting stats should be affected by any academies or schools that are in that city.

**Sharpe's Company** · October 28, 2009, 06:39 PM

I also hate over-bloated family trees and I never marry the daughters off

Agreed, The Generals ability should reflect the military buildings you have in your city, and not only that, the better quality the training the more professional the legion is. This is why I suggested that you could build either a high priced or low priced Legion depending on the buildings you have constructed.

I have never said that I would like to see a game where you can only pick a preset army, on the contrary, I said give us more slots and opinions to allow both.

We could even come to a stage where you could have a screen where you can pick your own stack before you've even entered onto your recruitment screen. Give us a Military screen where it could allow for Customary Stacks.

Why not allow us the chance to choose your own preset army?

It would be like in the multiplayer section, a screen that has all your units and a panel of slots to form your army. I know when I'm playing any TW game, I have my favorite stacks for each faction, If you could be able to save that Stack like on multiplayer and place it onto a unit card that you'll be able to see on your recruitment section, it would only be a benefit to the game.

With the arrival of ETW and the ability to rename your units, the obvious next stage is to name your Armies, hopefully when Rome 2 is announced as I fully expect it to be after the release of NTW, it would be a big mistake not implementing this kind of system.

Rome without it's Legions, Is nothing.

**G-Megas-Doux** · October 27, 2009, 07:42 PM

The ai could be set up to use standard roman tactics for Rome and everyone else could do what they liked. However better military decision making should be paramount for the other factions. Maybe a distance speed estimate could be involved in the calculations so that the ai could make better judgements on troop stationing.

**Fireright** · November 07, 2009, 02:49 AM

A pre-set Legion as an option sounds an interesting idea. I do suspect though that the legendary feeble AI, with all its money cheat bonuses and other advantages, would somehow abuse it and see it as an easy option to lob full legion stacks at the player time after time, making Rome itself a virtual fortress.

**King_Darius** · November 07, 2009, 03:36 AM

Originally Posted by Fireright

A pre-set Legion as an option sounds an interesting idea. I do suspect though that the legendary feeble AI, with all its money cheat bonuses and other advantages, would somehow abuse it and see it as an easy option to lob full legion stacks at the player time after time, making Rome itself a virtual fortress.

hmmmm, which means MORE fun kicking roman ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Fireright** · November 07, 2009, 03:53 AM

Depends how much Roman ass you wanna kick!!

I see a very lazy AI filling Roman cities with low-level preset Legions, and the entire Italian peninsula bristling with top-tier elite preset Legions.

Give AI programmers a simple option and they will take it.

I also see the end of the rebel peasant micro-stack.....and the arrival of the rebel legion mega-stack.

Players won't be able to move around the map because it's clogged with lazy AI preset legions

**The Noble Lord** · November 08, 2009, 12:18 AM

It is possible even now to create the complete Roman stack if I am not mistaken.

**Legio** · November 08, 2009, 08:16 AM

Yes, the Res Gestae mod has that system set up. When you recruit a general a full stack comes with him.
You can find the mod here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=211371